I did not hear or know of anyone who had ADD/ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) when I was in elementary/middle school (so about 20 years ago). Now seems like every 4-5 person I talk to have some form of ADD/ADHD. I am not sure if kids were under-diagnosed in the old days or we are actually over-diagnosing these days but I feel like I have some mild forms of ADD these days too and I seriously think it has to do with technology.
Here are my ADD symptoms:
1. We have so many forms of communication these days. When I am at work, not only do I have to tend to hundreds of emails everyday, I also have to coordinate work with my co-workers or answer other's questions over the phone and the office communicator (some people just don't have the patience to wait for you to answer your emails and if you don't answer their emails within 5 minutes from the time when they are sent, these people would be upset). This, coupled with me working on multiple projects and having to report to multiple bosses (for different projects), one should not be surprised that I can only manage to stay sane with the help of coffee. Unfortunately, while coffee helps me focus, it also gives me anxiety.
2. Once upon a time, we don't have tabs in our browsers. Now every browser supports multi-tab, you know, for multi-tasking, so that I can read posts on different blogs, write a post for my blog, check my bank account balance, check my Facebook, check my Google mail, watch a YouTube video, pay my internet bill, all at the same time. Well, 15 minutes later, my post is only half-done, I forget to pay my internet bill, and I forget if I have enough money to pay my bill even though I have checked my bank account balance already. So much for multi-tasking! For me, multi-tasking just means that I am trying to do everything, but nothing is really getting done HA!
3. I fear public-speaking, because I cannot process my thoughts and turn them into words in time. It's like when I am talking about idea A, in my mind, I am already thinking about idea B, C and D. And I want to talk about idea D before I can finish talking about idea A. Sigh, why can't everyone's brain be installed with Bluetooth so that I can just transmit my brainwaves to them without words?
4. I have household chores ADD. Take today for example, I started loading my washer with dirty laundry, and remembering that I had a few dirty towels that I was supposed to wash in the last load, I quickly went into the bathroom to grab them. While I was in the bathroom, I was distracted (and disgusted) by all the hair on the floor (why am I losing so much hair?), so I grabbed my vacuum and started cleaning my bathroom. Then while I was on the way to return my vacuum back to where it belonged, I passed by the kitchen and saw dirty dishes in the sink so I started attacking them. Then I glanced over to the oven, and oh, cookies would be a great idea, I thought to myself. So I started baking my cookies and next minute I was chasing my baby, shoo-ing her out of the kitchen, only to return to my burnt cookies 30 minutes later because I have forgotten that I was actually baking. Oh yeah, then I remembered that I was actually trying to do laundry in the first place!!! Talking about ADD!
Modified from my original post on Bubblews:
http://www.bubblews.com/news/813837-sorry-i-am-a-little-add
(Image credit: morguefile)
